Africa's malaria vaccine victory

Beating malaria - 24th April 2023

Kenya's marking a major milestone in the fight against malaria. Having rolled out a large-scale campaign against the disease, the country's registered a significant decline in cases and mortality linked to the life-threatening disease.

With approval from the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2021, over a million children have been immunised in Kenya, Malawi and Ghana. Kenya administered approximately 400,000 doses of the vaccine mainly in its western rural regions.

Director General of Health in Kenya, Patrick Amoth, reported that, "Within these areas, there has been a substantial reduction in deadly, severe malaria, a drop in child hospitalizations, and a reduction in child deaths."

Having taken over three decades to be rolled out, the RTS,S vaccine, developed by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, is making leaps and bounds towards eradicating malaria. A single dose is of low efficacy, therefore, at risk children are encouraged to have four doses before the age of two, to ensure the full benefits.

For millennia one of the biggest scourges on humanity, malaria, accounted for 247 million infections worldwide and claimed 619,000 lives in 2021 alone. According to WHO reports, 96 percent of those fatalities were recorded in Africa. With the disease prevalent across the continent, children remain the most vulnerable, with malaria being the primary cause of ill health and child mortality in Kenya.

In Kenya, Isabella Osido attended a vaccine drive with her child. She attested to the vaccine's efficacy stating, "at the beginning she [her child] was always sick with malaria and could be treated at a rural clinic," but she's not had to return, having completed the course of vaccines.

With preventative medicine and treatment backed by robust health systems, the global eradication of malaria is looking a lot more achievable. This is evidenced by Algeria, Sri Lanka and 7 other nations where there's been zero indigenous cases of the disease for three years running.

The WHO has a projected timeline of 2030 to fully eradicate malaria in 35 countries given the availability of the new vaccine and Kenya's poised to be amongst that number.